Before heading into the 2019 National Association of Music Merchants show, marketers at Novation (a Focusrite plc brand) felt they were out of tune with their target audience. The company, which produces musical instrument digital interface (MIDI) controllers and synthesizers, had been exhibiting at NAMM for several years, mostly by allowing visitors to test products while reps extolled the specs. Unfortunately, in today's trade show environment, that's a bit like dancing a polka at a salsa festival – that is to say, jarringly unsexy in comparison. Adding to the problem, there was no overarching strategy, no real incentive for people to visit the exhibit, and (surprise!) no big returns. Forays into experiential marketing fell flat. For example, despite unveiling a large-scale, interactive back-wall installation of the company's Launchpad MK2 MIDI controllers in 2018, Novation collected just 40 leads during the four-day show.

On top of a lack of strategy, Novation didn't have any new products to debut at NAMM 2019 that could serve as a Coachella-like lure. "Most consumer-facing brands like ours launch products in the late summer to early fall so that they have stock and see sales in the holiday months," says Hannah Bliss, Novation's director of marketing. "However, NAMM happens mid-January, so launching new products after the biggest selling period of the year is a little more challenging." As things stood, 2019 was looking to be a refrain of the past.

Taking Notes
Bliss and her team decided to retune their thinking and put engagement at the forefront of the exhibit – but do so strategically and with methods in place to track participation and harvest leads. But rather than reinvent the wheel, the team opted to revive the Launchpad activation, in which the company mounted 64 of the devices (each comprising an eight-by-eight grid of color-shifting buttons that users push to produce original tracks) to the exhibit's back wall, wired them together, and created a functioning 9-foot-square replica of its MIDI controller. Attendees made music by tapping the controllers on the wall, which lit up in response to the touches. While the activation didn't result in chart-topping lead counts, it did draw appreciable interest from booth visitors and passersby, leading Novation marketers to think the element was worthy of a reboot – if they could come up with a more defined hook to entice attendees.
Like the Launchpad activation, the strategy Bliss chose had a vintage element: reconcept the exhibit to mimic a classic arcade. "With Novation being founded in the early '90s and hits like "Stranger Things" making the '80s cool again, nostalgia was a perfect place to start," Bliss says. Three of Novation's existing product displays would be redesigned to resemble arcade-game mainstays, and the head-turning allure of the back-wall Launchpad display would be expanded to include an interactive floor component à la Dance Dance Revolution. With the exhibit theme set, Novation tasked California-based exhibit house Xibeo Inc. with fabricating a custom rental that brought the company's vision to life in the confines of a 10-by-30-foot in-line.

Still, designing a booth that attracts an audience like a New Orleans nightclub draws jazz lovers wouldn't generate actionable results without a surefire way to gather leads, something Novation had struggled with in the past. So to incentivize visitors to share their contact information, Novation rolled out a passport strategy in which attendees would collect stickers to affix to a game card by interacting with each of the quartet of engagements. After gathering the four stickers and writing their contact information on the backs of the cards, visitors could redeem the passports for branded swag and be entered in a raffle to win a Novation Circuit (a "groovebox" that's part MIDI controller, part synthesizer). With the design and lead-gathering strategy in place, Novation set a goal of surpassing its humble 2018 lead count of 40.

Hitting the Dance Floor
As NAMM attendees swarmed the aisles, they couldn't help but notice Novation's retro-arcade theme. The black vinyl back wall and flooring were covered in the company's stylized "N" logo and, in a nod to synth nerds, graphics of the four sound waves: sine, triangle, sawtooth, and square. Meanwhile, 24 Launchpad Pros arranged in a row atop the back wall created a chyron of messages such as "Welcome to the Novation NAMM booth" and "#LaunchpadXL." Although visitors could enter the exhibit from just about anywhere, most were immediately drawn to the Launchpad XL zone in the middle of the stand, where the back-wall assembly of colorful MIDI controllers was now paired with an identical dance floor comprising Novation's units covered with a clear acrylic top. But before participants could bust a move, they had to don a pair of branded nonslip socks. Besides protecting the floor, the giveaway enabled staffers to track participation based on the number of socks distributed.

When users kicked off their shoes, put on their new footwear, and stepped onto the Launchpads, the preprogrammed controllers started laying down some funky beats. Dancing on different squares added layers to a track that was pumped out via nearby speakers. And as with the previous iteration, dancers could tap the Launchpads mounted on the back wall to add to the music. Even better, the platform was large and sturdy enough to handle a pair of dancers, doubling the fun and throughput.

Once dancers had worn themselves out, a staffer handed them a game card and a Launchpad XL sticker to affix to one quadrant of the card. The rep explained that by visiting the other three activations, they'd be eligible for cool swag and a chance to win a Novation Circuit.

Motivated visitors then moved on to another engagement, which for some was the PADL game located in the front-left corner of the exhibit. Inspired by the iconic '70s-era Pong game, the station was a thigh-high 2-by-3-foot activation consisting of six Launchpads that formed the game's "court." Competitors tried to defend their back wall and score on their opponents by sliding their "paddles" side to side using their fingers on the MIDI controllers. A circuit inside the cabinet played preprogrammed notes whenever the "ball" ricocheted off a wall, bounced off a paddle, or notched a point. When visitors scored, a row of squares lit up – either blue or orange, depending on the player's color. After a person amassed eight points, the entire court turned the winner's color before resetting. Players then collected their PADL stickers, stuck them to their game cards, and waltzed to another segment.

Against the back wall, visitors played Bass Invaders, a spinoff of the arcade classic Space Invaders. This gaming station utilized a Launchpad, a Peak synthesizer, and a Circuit. After donning headphones, pairs of players worked in tandem to create sounds and rhythms. By laying down tracks on the Launchpad and Circuit and spinning the dials on the Peak and Circuit, players manipulated an "alien tail" that weaved across a screen, creating an audiovisual experience that was infinitely more entertaining than studying a readout of the products' specs and stats.

After collecting the Bass Invaders sticker, visitors made their way to the SL MkIII Space Station, the most immersive and complex experience in the booth and one that tested the wizardry of even the most accomplished musicians. The console consisted of three monitors linked to a slew of the company's latest music-producing products – all of which were controlled by the 49SL MkIII, a keyboard that is anything but typical. Players crawled into a gaming chair that was synced with the other devices. As users created music, the screens sprang to life with stunning visuals, and the chair vibrated to the frequency oscillations, creating the epitome of sensory overload.

Much like arcadegoers take their tickets to a prize counter, once visitors collected all four stickers, they headed to the merchandise cabinet to get some branded swag. Before doling out prizes, staffers verified that attendees had written their names and email addresses on the backs of the cards and, since Novation is a U.K.-based company, had checked one of two boxes either opting into or out of follow-up product and marketing emails, per General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) guidelines. To ensure that even reluctant attendees included their contact info, staffers reminded them that each submitted card entered visitors into the daily raffle for one of Novation's Circuits. (Alternatively, attendees could forego collecting stickers and still enter the raffle by filling out their contact information on the back of a card and dropping it in the raffle box.)

Measures of Success
The experiential exhibit combined with the passport strategy led to a dramatic crescendo in results. By the end of the show's third day, Novation distributed all 600 pairs of socks for the Launchpad XL attraction, so booth staffers let visitors kick up their heels in their own hosiery. Bliss estimates that closer to 800 people engaged in that one activation, surpassing the company's wildest expectations.

Even better, an astounding 406 attendees submitted game cards with emails, a 10-fold increase compared to the previous year. Of those 406 contacts, 183 opted into receiving marketing communications, blowing past the goal of 40 actionable leads by more than 350 percent.

Novation was an unexpected hit on social media as well. "One of our boutique dealers, Perfect Circuit, posted a photo of the Launchpad XL, which racked up almost 800 likes by the end of the first day, and one of our product partners, SubPac, uploaded another product photo that almost hit 800 likes as well," Bliss says. "Those may not seem like huge numbers, but posts of just products do not tend to get that kind of reaction."

Videos of the exhibit performed even better, with a brand-partner post reaching more than 9,000 views in less than 12 hours. The various streams of attention from booth traffic, email collection, and social-media awareness all melded together to create a beautiful harmony that was sweet, sweet music to Novation's ears. E